The present invention relates to a blood collecting apparatus and a blood-collecting method to be carried out by using the blood collecting apparatus.
In normal blood collecting (operation of introducing blood collected from a donor by a blood collecting needle into a blood collecting bag), a needle-piercing portion of the donor is sterilized with alcohol. But there is a possibility that bacteria present on or under the skin enters the blood collecting bag together with the blood.
Some kinds of bacteria which have entered the blood collecting bag increase while the blood collecting bag is kept cold. When the blood is transfused into a patient, the patient may suffer from infectious disease or blood poisoning.
The pH of red blood cell conservation liquid (S.A.G.M. liquid, OPTISOL liquid, M.A.P. liquid, and the like) currently used is substantially neutral, unlike the conventional blood conservation liquid (anticoagulants such as ACD-A liquid and CPD liquid). Thus, in the red blood cell conservation liquid, bacteria increase in a high extent while the blood collecting bag is refrigerated.
Because the bacteria are present not only on the skin but also under the skin, only careful sterilization of the needle-piercing portion is not enough to prevent them from penetrating into blood.
It is experimentally known that bacteria penetrates into an initial flow of collected blood, together with fragments of skin. However, a blood collecting bag or a blood collecting apparatus capable of removing the initial flow of collected blood has not been developed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a blood collecting apparatus and a blood-collecting method to be carried out by using the blood collecting apparatus capable of preventing blood from being contaminated with bacteria, improving safety, and collecting examination blood in a preferable state.